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Arrow Recap: The Magician

Because Netflix was a bit of a jerk and decided to delay its release of season 2, I’ve had a bit of catching up to do before I could start talking about Arrow here on the blog. Now I’m all caught up and ready to break down Arrow, so here goes! As always, if you aren’t caught up on Arrow: SPOILER ALERT.

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Wednesday’s episode had Team Arrow working with Nyssa to track down Sara’s killer. Nyssa and the League of Assassins suspect it to be Malcolm Merlyn, who as we know, returned to Starling with Thea. It makes sense for Malcolm to be Sara’s killer, as Malcom was an enemy of the League, he is the Dark Archer, and Sara died with a handful of arrows in her chest.

However, things get a bit sticky when Malcolm swears on Thea’s life that he did not kill Sara. Oliver believes him, but Nyssa doesn’t, so any goodwill or professional courtesy that had formed between the League and Team Arrow basically disappear, with Nyssa returning home, telling her father that Oliver had sided with Malcolm Merlyn. This can’t lead to anything good.

All in all, this episode posed a heck of a lot more questions than actual answers, so I’m gonna break those down:

1. Who really killed Sara?

Malcolm is a great liar and super tricky. Even after being “killed” by Oliver in season one, he basically just pops back onto the scene all:

So when he told Oliver he did not kill Sara–and that Nyssa’s father, Ra’s al Ghul had Sara killed–I was a bit torn. It’s definitely not beyond the realm of reason to think that Malcolm would lie to everyone about really killing Sara, but Ra’s al Ghul having Sara killed for her lack of loyalty did make sense as Sara was pretty far from the League’s most loyal member. That paired with Ra’s al Ghul telling Nyssa that Sara was never truly a part of the League does make me wonder. Besides, Malcolm swearing his innocence (of this crime, at least) on Thea’s life added a bit of weight to things. Speaking of Thea…

2. What is going on with Thea?

She spent quite a bit of time in Corto Maltese with Malcolm having some serious father-daughter bonding time where Malcolm taught her some serious fighting skills.

But to what end? Thea initially agreed to Malcolm’s training because she didn’t want to be hurt anymore, but what is Malcolm really planning here? From the episode, it seems like Thea is at least fairly clued in to what was going on with Malcolm and the League. Does she know that Oliver is the Arrow? Is Malcolm only using Thea to get to Oliver? Is this desire of Malcolm’s to be a good father to Thea just an act, or does he really care for her? Now that Thea is a pretty skilled fighter, what will we see from her in the future? I’m also interested to see what will happen now that she hired Roy as the assistant manager of Verdant. So many questions…

3. When will Laurel become the Canary?

Before she died, Sara gave Laurel her leather jacket, and since Sara’s death, Laurel has had a serious itch to go fight some crime. She’s even been learning to fight at a local gym. After Wednesday’s episode, Nyssa visited Laurel in her gym, said she saw strength in Laurel, and gave a quick fighting tip.

We know Laurel is going to become the Canary eventually, but I’m dying to learn when that will happen. And after this week’s episode, I’m also very curious if Nyssa will have anything to do with Laurel’s training.

What were your big questions from the episode? What do you think of season 3 so far? Let me know in the comments, and check out the trailer for next week’s episode of Arrow below!